‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve decided on a weird one: I resolve NOT to be in pursuit of happiness.

Happiness is limited, temporary, dependent on circumstances and always rather threatened. Even if somehow we find fulfillment at work, comfort at home, and are surrounded by wonderful friends and a loving family all at the same time … it can fall apart in an instant with one bad accident or diagnosis, or some other life glitch beyond our control.

The problem with settling for the bits of happiness that we can capture on our own is that those snippets are likely to satiate us enough to keep us from seeking the joy of God. We think those tiny satisfactions are as good as it can get.

God wants us to be happy but not with the shallow happiness experienced when we get a material something we’ve wanted or reach a level of social status that is seen as valuable. His dream for us is a joy that runs deeper than our circumstances. We see it in many of the saints whose lives were often difficult, sometimes to great levels that included exile, loss, pain or death.

God’s joy endures at some level of those who love Him. Often it is invisible, but other times it is glimpsed in the faces of people like St. Maximilian Kolbe. The Nazi guards tried to prevent his ecstatic face from being seen as they dragged his body from the starvation room where he died. But guards and prisoners did see him, and they pondered it.

Joy can be seen also in the photographs of St. Teresa of Calcutta, even though we now know that she herself couldn’t feel it because of a God-given, inner dark night she endured for years. The unfelt joy of God dwelling within her still shone forth to witness to us the deeper things of God.

Indulging our desires for happiness will gradually render us unable to receive such joy from God. That is one reason the Catholic faith has long valued the practice of denying ourselves on a regular basis. Developing a habit of stepping back from small indulgences gives us a certain self-mastery that is essential to spiritual growth. It also mystically cleans out the clutter within our spirits, making room for God to fill us with His own gifts, which always are better than the best that the world can give.

A number of the saints, and a particular wise Carmelite friar friend of mine, warned their readers and listeners about the trap of comfort, which may be related to those bites of happiness. It is easier by far to stretch out in Godly work when we are not in a satisfied place in life. Such a contented state is pleasant, and it instantly becomes something we want to protect and not disturb. We will avoid following Jesus with sincerity because to do so will disrupt those happy bubbles of being.

Serving God and growing in faith is always a bit of a challenge. Jesus specializes in calling us to proceed in ways we ordinarily would not have chosen. He expects us to reach past the borders of our comfort zones, to spend our energy in unfamiliar tasks, and to actually try to love people we ordinarily would seek to avoid at all costs.

God tells us to be selfless, to give away things we may want to keep, to not worry about what others think and to trust Him for our future. Fasting, the practice of stewardship, regular prayer and frequent reading of the writings of the saints and of Church documents all help prepare us to be strong interiorly, providing both inspiration and spiritual “armor” to protect us from evil and otherwise-good temptations that are not good for us.

People in every age can testify that our wonderful Church has the resources to help us toward heaven. But we have to choose to take advantage of them. It is not automatic — and like most good things, the more we strive for holiness, the greater our growth.

So, to heck with the pursuit of mere happiness — how much better to go for the joy!

Now is a great time to get going anew.